


Map of the Unknown

by Kinsdura



Category: Homestuck
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-09-19
Updated: 2016-06-16
Packaged: 2017-12-27 00:23:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 19,500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/972086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kinsdura/pseuds/Kinsdura
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Aradia encounters a mysterious troll who gives her a scroll and tells her to protect it with her life. She doesn't dare open it, but what does it contain that's so important? Cheesy summary, better fanfic. Straight shippings only but mentions of other ships; Ancestors are included. Multiple POVs. T rating for language. Disclaimer: Andrew Hussie owns Homestuck.</p><p>PREVIEW: You are Aradia Megido and you enjoy walking around near your hive where the beach and ocean stretched far beyond your sight.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

You are Aradia Megido and you enjoy walking around near your hive where the beach and ocean stretched far beyond your sight. Your hive was located two hundred yards away from the edge of your village; you were practically alone! About a hundred yards away from your hive towards the village, a bunch of decks situated on a walkway that started about seventy five yards ahead of you. Although you couldn't see the decks now because of how cloudy it was, you knew that only a few were occupied. Your little island wasn't very popular with traders, but it was well known for the many treasures that could be found in the ground. Although these treasures were rare to come by, when found, they came in great amounts and could supply the founder with $5,000,000 at least. These underground treasures accumulated with your other like, archaeology.

You look up to the sky and see lightening flash across the dark clouds. Oh yeah, that's also another reason why a lot of ships didn't come here. Once a storm started, it would go on for days and not show any signs of stopping. You honestly liked the storms, but it was better not stay out in the rain for long or else you hair would puff up like the sheep in your yard. You loved the sheep, and they didn't seem to dislike you, so you sort of claimed them as your own. Even though there were only six of them, you took care of them like you would if your lusus was around. Oh right, about that. You lusus died of a sickness two years ago, but that was okay. She was in a better place now so you had no problem with taking care of yourself if it meant she was living a better life. As the thoughts of your beloved lusus swirled around in your head, you herded your sheep into a shelter you had built for them one and a half years ago for them.

Once all the sheep were snug in the shelter, you walked calmly to your hive. You didn't realize how far away you had walked away from your hive so you picked up you pace. A loud booming sound was heard and you predicted the storm was thirty three to thirty four miles off the coast. Now, you weren't the one to be afraid of thunder and lightning, but the murky darkness that always seemed to be a presence on the island now seemed ominous and it was starting to freak you out. When you finally reached your hive, you shut the door firmly behind you and locked it securely. You sigh, feeling a little safer than you did when you were outside. You take a glance at the clock and see that it's 1:34 in the afternoon. You sigh again. You feel as if this is going to be a long day. The lights in the house were going to stay off so that no one could see you from out there. The one thing trouble likes to do is diminish the light.

You walk to your room calmly on the next floor and launch yourself on to your bed as soon as you're within five feet of the thing. You then immediately go underneath the covers and stare at the ceiling. You did not have a good feeling about today. You heard rain start outside as a flash of light came through your windows. Oh right, you should probably shut the curtains as to prevent yourself from making up creatures in the shadows. You crawl to the side of your bed and shut one of the windows curtains as another flash lights up the sky. You are unable to reach the other window from your bed, so you proceed to get up and off your bed when a loud crack of thunder initiates. You flinch but continue on your trek to the second window. This window over looked the beach and sea that you mentioned earlier. As you were about to close the window, a streak of lightning drew across the sky, shocking you with what you saw in the distance.

Outside in the sea was a great ship with raggedy sails and flag flailing in the wind. You watched in awe as the mighty ship was tossed back and forth like a rag doll by the waves that seemed to be made of some ancient anger. Thunder was heard and lightening was seen as you watched what seem like an old movie show clips and tidbits of life unraveling slowly before your eyes. You weren't sure about what to do. Should you go and try to direct them to port now or should you wait till daybreak and see if they made it? You immediately dismiss the last thought. Doing that means that only a few of them will survive, if not any of them.

You grab a black trench coat from your desk nearby and dash down the stairs. When you reach down stairs you take a second to consider your actions. In this weather you have no idea how you're going to even get their attention, but then again, this could mean life or death for them. You shake your head and walk out the door, closing it behind you carefully as to not make any noise, even though you're sure no one would be able to hear a dying man yell in this weather. Wow, okay, that was a really bad comparison to use considering the situation right now…

Anyways…

You see the ocean starting to calm a little and for a moment, you think that what you had planned to do was a bit foolish. Why wouldn't they make it to port themselves? They're highly trained sailors that can take care of themselves, why would they need help from someone like you? You watched a little solemnly as the ship started to turn towards port, but what you saw coming up next had you more concerned than before. One giant wave came from the port side of the ship and crashed into it, turning it about 112.5 degrees in the opposite direction. You hear a few yells, but none of those voices would be heard in the village. You looked ahead to see where they would be headed, but unfortunately, the fog was blocking your view.

You ran to what seems to be the spot they are heading towards, and you slow down upon seeing where they were heading.

Ahead of you (and the ship) was a large cluster of sharp rocks, the jagged ends of the boulders ominously waiting to destroy the ship's hull. You could only watch as the ship was pushed yet again by another fearsome wave and into the sharp rocks. You heard wood splintering and more cries from the boat as the waves and rocks worked together to obliterate the ship into small remnants of what it used to be. There was a crack of lightening across the sky that revealed more damage than what you had initially thought. The boat was torn in half, sails floating in the ocean as the boulders stabbed into the boat as some men attempted to swim towards shore. Thunder sounded, shaking the ground underneath you and thus causing some hollers from the surviving members of the wreckage.

You were about to run towards the crash site when lighting lit the sky up to show that the men you had seen earlier were gone, with no trace to be found from them, only a few pieces of drift wood washing up onto the beach side. To be quite honest, that moment had freaked the crap out of you. You stand there, still standing in the same place as before as a clap of thunder initiated and caused the ground to rumble again. You were waiting for the next sign of life, but had a bad feeling you would never get to see it.

Lightening flashed again and again, allowing you to see that a man had dragged himself up onto shore; he was tall and adorned with fancy clothing. You assumed he was a merchant because of the many rings and jewelry you had seen sparkle on him during the bright flashes of light. You held your breath, but after his fantastic climb to shore, he had seemed to pass out right on the sand bank. Your mind rushed as what to do next, so you did what any other normal troll or person would do.

You got your wheel barrow.

You push the wheel barrow over the wet sand and to the man whom was resting on the ground. You examine him quickly, and noticed that the color he was wearing was a violet shade and that he was a mertroll. He was also an adult, which was rare to see since they were also banned from Earth too. You shake your head. Just your stroke of luck to get an extremely high blooded troll to take care of, right?

You drag his body up into your wheel barrow and you turn it around to the direction of your house. His body is sort of sprawled out in the cart and hanging off all of the edges it had, but you can fix that later. Right now, you had to get him inside. As you started to move, his eyes flashed open and grabbed your left arm. You almost screamed at his movement, but stopped when you realized he was trying to hand you something.

"Wha- what is it?" you ask, trying to see what he was holding.

He waved his hand at you, motioning for you to come closer. You lean over to hear him say these next words as he forcefully handed over a battered scroll to you:

"Keep this safe. Protect it with your life."

And with that, he passed out in your wheel barrow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What's going is sort of obvious, but I'm just trying to set up the beginning with a little bit of entertainment, you know, enough to keep you guys interested? Anyways, that's what the next few chapters will be about, so around chapter 4 I should have gotten to the point I REALLY wanted to start the story at. I hope you enjoy what is to come!


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aradia is now taking care of a troll she found washed up on the beach during a bad storm after a nasty ship wreck; the possibilities for how this will go down are unlimited. 
> 
> PREVIEW: You are Aradia Megido and you now see that the world is full of surprises.

You are Aradia Megido and you now see that the world is full of surprises. It's been a week since you had saved an adult mertroll from certain death and brought him into your hive. He's still weak and hasn't moved from the couch you placed him on since he got to your hive. He sleeps most of the day, but he usually lays awake looking around your living room and getting a feel for his bearings.

His voice had a nice rumble to it that you like, which prompted you to try and talk to him when you had the chance. When you did talk with him, you guys often talked about when he might be able to move again. You were no doctor, but you figured he might be able to get up from the couch in the next two weeks. This news would always gladden him, and afterwards he would usually open up enough for you to extract some information.

His name is Orphaner Dualscar,

He has violet blood,

He is a pirate,

And he knows (for a fact) that he is the only survivor of the crash.

During your talks, he would sometimes get a concerned look and ask if you still had the scroll. Your answer was always the same, which was that it was still in your chest upstairs. Sometimes he would ask to see it, and sometimes he wouldn't. When he did, he always shooed you out of the room.

You have no idea what is in the scroll.

"Hey, Aradia! Vwill ya' please come here for a second?"

You look up from making lunch and decide to postpone finishing it for a few minutes. You walk over to Dualscar and see him holding out the scroll towards you.

"Thanks for lettin' me look at the scroll again, and sorry for naggin' ya' about it." He said, an apologetic smile crossing his face.

You smile and nod, not really knowing what to say. You take the scroll back and start to walk up stairs when you decide to open your poorly filtered mouth.

"Hey, do you mind if I open the scroll and look at it?"

Dualscar had a start and fell off the couch, almost hitting his head on the coffee table right next to him. He looked as if he was about to scold you when his features were replaced by a confused look.

"Ya' havwen't looked inside yet?"

"Um, no? I was kind of hoping that you'd let me look at it once you wanted me to." You say a bit bashfully.

He stared at you dumbfounded after your response, and that made you think you had done something wrong, so you quickly looked down at your feet. There was a pause of silence which quickly became uncomfortable, causing you both to shift into new positions and scratch your heads in attempt to get rid of the awkwardness through those actions.

"Vwowv, you're a really honest kid ya' knowv that? Oh, and vwhere's your lusus? I havwen't seen one since I arriwved 'ere and vwas just vwonderin'-"

"She's dead."

"She's vwhat nowv? I'm so sorry to hear that lass, I didn't knowv-"

"It's okay; it's not your fault." You say, tears starting to well up in your eyes at the mention of her.

You had never talked to anyone about Ram Mom's death except for the doctors who told you of her passing, and you got a terrible ping in your heart at the mention of a lusus ever since then. You struggled to hold back the tears that were welling up in your eyes, but some slipped out and rolled across your cheeks, claiming them as a passage way for your tears. Even though you were still looking at the ground, you could tell that Dualscar was watching you, and you couldn't really tell what he was feeling.

You heard a few grunts and shuffles from the living room, and they slowly grew closer as a shadow passed over you. You looked up to see Dualscar towering over you, a concerned look on his face. You tears seemed to halt immediately; his presence menacing and protective at the same time.

"I'm sorry lass, I really am; and I knowv howv it feels to be alone."

He took a deep breath, his voice getting choked up from memories of those times. When he exhaled, he looked into your eyes with a renewed energy and deep meaning. He continued with maybe one of the most important sentences you have ever heard:

"But you're not alone anymore, and I'm not leavwing anytime soon, alright?"

You felt fresh tears come to your eyes as an overwhelming sense of happiness came over you. You felt your knees go out under you but you were caught by Dualscar as he pulled you into a hug. At this point, your body decided that it was time to finally cry for the first time in three and a half sweeps. You hugged Dualscar back, and you were pretty sure that he was crying too, because of the hot drops of water you felt through your shirt. You guys probably cried yourselves out for half an hour or so before the water works started to let up.

You both walked over to the couch and sat down, Dualscar back to his regular composure and you reduced to a sniveling wriggler. He hugged you until you stopped crying completely and just sat there in silence, mulling over the thoughts in each of your heads. It took ten minutes to process everything that had happened, making you jump off the couch.

"Dualscar!"

"Huh? Uh, vwhat?"

"You stood up! And you walked!"

"I… I guess I did. Vwait, oh my God I did!"

He jumped off the couch and embraced you into a bear hug, swinging you around in circles with both of you laughing. When he finally put you down, you both plopped back onto the couch with the feeling of euphoria residing in the living room.

Dualscar looked over at you with wide grin on his face, the scars running across his face stretching to keep up with his new facial expression.

"So, vwhat do vwe do next lass?"

You grin back as you hear his stomach growl.

"How about lunch?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay! This chapter is finished and I will soon be done with the next one, so please hold on tight!


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dualscar is getting adjusted to living with Aradia, but there is an unexpected appearance that sort of mixes things up.
> 
> PREVIEW: You are Orphaner Dualscar, and you were saved and are currently being taken care of by a female troll that is six and a half sweeps old.

You are Orphaner Dualscar, and you were saved and are currently being taken care of by a female troll that is six and a half sweeps old. Yesterday, you had an emotional breakdown with her, but if anyone would have asked now, it had never happened.

You now stand in the kitchen with a small red apron on as you prepared breakfast. But why are you, Orphaner Dualscar, great pirate of the sea, making breakfast in a small red apron? Well, because you were hungry and the apron was for safety precautions. Duh.

As you crack two eggs you hear the old wooden stairs creak under the weight of a person. You turn your head a bit to see a sleepy Aradia walking down the stairs, her hair seemingly fine and untangled, an unusual sight to see on her. She was also wearing a red, faded work dress that reached to her knees, the black trench coat you saw when you first met her, and her regular white socks and black shoes. You turned back around to finish cooking the eggs as you hear her start behind you.

"Uh, Dualscar? Do you even know how to cook?"

"Of course I do. You think I vwould go out to sea vwithout knowvin' howv?"

"Uh, I guess not. But why so early in the morning?"

You take a glance at the clock and read 6:34 on it. You forgot that you were an early riser, so making breakfast at six in the morning was no big deal. Besides, you were already up two and a half hours ago, so it made sense to you to make it now. You look around to see she had seated herself on the counter and was pulling her hair back into a top bun, her bangs falling out to crop her face.

"And vwhat about you? Vwhy are you avwake so early in the mornin'?"

"Oh, I have to go and feed the sheep."

"Sheep?"

"Yeah, they're near the sight of the ship crash."

"Ah, I see. Vwhy havwen't I seen you go out to feed them before?"

"Because I usually go out the back door."

"…Oh."

You turn back to cooking as you hear her run out the back door. By the time you're finished making breakfast, she's back from feeding the sheep and looked like she had ran back.

"Vwell then, aren't ya' in a hurry!"

"I'm not; it's just that the fog got thicker is all."

"That fog is still hangin' around 'ere? Bloody hell, it could cause more accidents!"

"Oh, actually, I think your ship was an exception. Since the crash, two boats have docked into harbor safely without any casualties."

"Vwell isn't that strange. But might ask one thing lass: Vwhy are ya' runnin' from fog?"

"It just doesn't feel… right. I keep getting an anonymous feeling from it and I just keep thinking something's going to go terribly wrong."

You give her a questioning look while you make two plates for breakfast. You shrug and look down so that you don't spill food anywhere. What? You want to know what you cooked? Don't you remember making this stuff? No? Oh, okay. Well then.

You had just dished out the eggs, corn beef hash, and toast when someone knocked on the door. You look up, giving Aradia another questioning look. She was just as surprised as you. Nonetheless, she got up and walked to the door. You took off the apron and put it on the counter, walking toward the front of the kitchen so you could see who it was.

She opened the door and her facial expression changed from curious to shocked to happy in under two seconds flat.

"Hey Aradia! And how are you today?"

In came two adult humans, one male and one female, both in white lab coats with a red cross symbol on the breast pocket. They embraced Aradia into a warm hug as you stepped out of the kitchen entrance to observe the spectacle. They didn't notice you until the male spotted you in the corner of his eye. He instantly pulled out a small hand gun and got into a defensive stance, his counterpart doing the same.

"Who are you?" The female asked, standing in front of Aradia.

You stare at them dumbfounded then let out a hardy laugh, making them extremely confused. Aradia told them to put their weapons down and that she was fine, but they didn't listen. Your laughter only made them more tense; her protests only made it seem as if you had brainwashed her. You really couldn't believe how readable humans were.

"Vwowv, I havwe nevwer seen twvo humans try and protect a troll!" you say, leaning into the kitchen wall behind you. "But first, you havwe to ansvwer me: Vwho are you twvo?"

Their shoulders loosen a bit as Aradia got in front of them, but the male still had his gun pointed firmly on you. Aradia was the first to speak.

"Dualscar, these are my uh, guardians. They check up on me every two months to make sure I'm okay."

"And vwhy do they do that?" you ask, not exactly sure why she would need them.

"Well, as you know, my lusus died a few sweeps back, and they were the doctors that tried to help Ram Mom."

"And they're lookin' after ya' vwhy?"

Aradia stopped talking and looked at her supposed guardians. The male finally put his gun down and back in his holster.

"We decided to claim her as our own since she no longer had a custodian. We couldn't bear to see another troll become an orphan, so we sort of adopted her. It's not official because the government probably wouldn't allow it. Oh, and I'm Kliffe Maroon, and this is my wife, Teresa."

"It's very nice to meet you Mister…"

"Dualscar. Orphaner Dualscar."

"Oh come now, that must not be your real name! Trolls have the standard 6x6 naming pattern!" Kliffe said, giving you an incredulous look.

"Well yes, that is true, but you forgot one thing. In the troll culture, once one becomes an adult, they can change their name to whatever they want, and it can be over or under the 6x6 rule."

"Really? I had no idea!"

"Vwell, havwe you evwer heard of someone vwith a title? Like, for example, our great and glorious ruler, Her Imperious Condescension?"

"Yes, we've heard of her, though she's not as great and glorious as you think."

"I knowv, I'm just saying."

"So, what's your real name?"

You sighed and looked at all three of them, their faces childish and curious. You couldn't leave them hanging like this, so you decided it was time to give your real name for the first time in over ten sweeps.

"My name is Cronus Ampora."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah-ha! I'm on a role guys! The next chapter is coming up oh so soon! UwU


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dualscar and Aradia have a relaxing day when they make a deal.
> 
> PREVIEW: You are Orphaner Dualscar, and you had to change your blood color.

You are Orphaner Dualscar, and you had to change your blood color. Not literally of course, but you, with the help of your new partners in crime, Kliffe and Teresa Maroon, had converted you into an adult male olive blood. This way you were able to go where you pleased without it seeming too suspicious, and the only thing you really had to do was cover your purple streak, since hair dye didn’t seem to work on it.

You were currently in the guest bedroom on the bottom floor of Aradia’s hive, and it wasn’t too shabby considering her status as a low blood. You were somewhat dressed, considering you only had on your boxers and pajama pants, but you really couldn’t decide what to wear. You had been standing in front of your closest for at least twenty minutes now and still had no idea of what to do.

You honestly had to admit you weren’t fond on the idea of becoming an olive blood. Why? Because you didn’t particularly like the color, that’s why. You didn’t think much of what you were doing when you reached out and grabbed a t-shirt off its hanger. It was a dark grey with olive rimmed sleeves and collar. It didn’t have a symbol, thankfully, so that you wouldn’t have to feel like you had completely reverted to being a mid-blood, but it still felt incomplete.  
You draped the shirt over your arm as you reached for another hanger. You pulled off a twin-tailed coat that was the same shade of olive you were assigned. You grunted. At least they had a little bit of fashion sense to get you something a bit higher class.

You went on through the wardrobe like this every day since two weeks ago, and the criticizing got less and less by each day. Now all you mostly did was grunt and shrug, knowing that you could only do so much. You picked out the first shirt you had mentioned and plain black pants to go along with it. You weren’t going anywhere today, and you had no work either.

Speaking of, you currently had a job on the weekends as a hairdresser, even though you had mostly no idea what you were doing, the owner said you had a ‘natural talent for it’. You could really care less, but you were currently looking for a better job, even though it had decent pay.  
You walked out to the living room and sat on the couch, turning on the television as Aradia walked in from upstairs.  
“Good morning!” she said cheerfully, her voice warm and comforting.

“G’mornin’ lass.” You reply, switching the channel from a soap opera about war and love to a history show about Jack the Ripper.  
You feel her feet walk over behind the couch and pause only to start moving again to continue their path to the kitchen.  
“I honestly think that Jack the Ripper would have made a great troll, if only he wasn’t human.” She replied, referring to the known fact that troll society was much more violent and accepted someone when they had murder another.

“Yeah, I agree. He probably vwould have been a great subjuggulator; a vwery stealthy one too.”

“Yup.”

A few minutes pass and the scent of popcorn fills the air. You sniff and relish the flavor that you can imagine in your mouth. It had been forever since you had had popcorn, almost to the point that you forgot popcorn existed. Aradia came over and sat next to you, holding out a bowl of popcorn. You smile gratefully at her as you reach down and grab some. You don’t know why, but you almost feel like a human father to her, and it feels really weird but comforting at the same time. You push that thought away as you watched the rest of the Jack the Ripper episodes (it happened to be split into two episodes that day). In that time, you went through four bags of popcorn, not that it mattered anyway. 

By the time you’re finished watching T.V., it’s about 12:00 in the afternoon. You got up and stretched, feeling extremely lazy from the lack of moving around much these days.

You walked around the living room table a few times to get feeling back in your legs and you wondered briefly if you could go see the Maroon’s. They seemed nice enough, but you didn’t want to lower your status just quite so fast. You find yourself wondering if you had made any other friends besides Aradia and her make-shift parents. That would be a no.

In fact, now that you think about, you really didn’t have many friends. There was Aranea, but she wasn’t much fun nowadays, and then there was Porrim, but she disappeared two sweeps ago, and then there was Kankri and Mituna, two people whom you actually cared about (one in which you shared a quadrant with) but were too far away to make contact with.

You visibly sighed.

You had to get a better social life. Especially now that your whole crew was gone.  
You think back on the crash when you panic.

You look around a bit frantically to see Aradia cleaning the popcorn bowl. You walk over, your strides a little long and a bit heavy as she looked up from her chore. Her face contorted into confusion as she looked at you, probably because you felt your face stiffen and grow into its familiar scowl.

“Lass, vwhen you found me on the ocean shore, did ye’ find any, er, vweapons?”

“Yes.”

“And vwhere did you put them?”

“I won’t tell you.”

“Vwhat?”

“You heard me. I won’t tell you. You’re not going to need them so what’s the point in having it out?”

You stared at her long and hard.

“I don’t think you understand. I havwe to make sure you got a specific vweapon, ye’ hear?”

She stared blankly at you until she spoke again.

“On one condition.”

“Vwhat.”

“I get to go out to town, right now, and when I come back, you can see if I have your weapon.”

You opened your mouth to object but closed it. She had wanted to see her friends for a while in the town, but you had always kept her here. You saw no reason why she shouldn’t go, so you decided to do your act of kindness for the day.

“Alright lass, you can go to towvn, but you havwe to keep your promise!”

“I will! Promise!”

And with that, she grabbed her coat, and ran outside into the day, closing the door tightly behind her.

You noticed that today had no fog, unlike all the other days. You had a bad gut feeling about it, but you ignored it. The sun was shining; you could see nothing wrong with a day like that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, hope you like it so far! As you can tell from that ending, it's obvious something will go wrong, but that's the fun in it all! You don't know, and I do, and you have to keep reading to find out! So just keep on reading!


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aradia goes to town to visit her friends but ends up making enemies instead.
> 
> PREVIEW: You are Aradia Megido, and you were already half way to town.

You are Aradia Megido, and you were already half way to town. You had finally convinced Dualscar to let you go alone, since when he had first been able to go into town, he would want to go along in order to know his way around. He never talked but it felt like you were being constantly watched, and it made you very uncomfortable.

Now, as you raced to the town, you saw a few ships at port. One, in which caught your attention right away.

It was big and black; its sails were a nice blue with gold and silver rims everywhere around the ship. There was no flag, which was a bit unusual, but people did come here to start over sometimes, so it didn’t seem too odd. You slowed to a jog that eventually evolved into a walk, the breeze growing strong as the town busily went about its day. You noticed for the first time that the sun was out, and you relished the feeling of warmth as you walked along the docks.

All around you, people were busy getting cargo loaded and unloaded while kids and wrigglers played together in the streets such as tag and hide-n-seek. You wondered around, wondering if Nepeta and Tavros were around. You hadn’t seen them since your lusus had passed, and you never really went out anymore, only for supplies. You wondered if they would recognize you... You quickly became self-conscious as you looked down to see what you were wearing.

You were wearing your plain burgundy dress that reached your knees, knee high socks and your black shoes. You also had your black coat, just in case something happened. You were still walking when you bumped into someone with enough force to almost knock them to the ground.

“Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry!” You exclaim, hands closed up around yourself to prevent you from doing anything else stupid.

The boy who you almost knocked over regains his balance and glared at you.

“What in the ever loving fuck do you think you’re doing?” he almost yells, his friend holding him back.

You never remembered encountering him before, but then you realized why you haven’t. He was in the gang. They didn’t have a name, but they always had people because it was mostly composed of young trolls and kids whose parents and lusi had died. You never joined because you had the Maroon’s, but some weren’t as lucky as you. You look back at the short boy in front of you, and his rage seemed to be seething off of him in long coils around him. He was a troll with short black hair, nubby horns, and a sickle in his right hand. His friend was also a troll, tall, lanky, and had two spiked horns on each side of his head.

“I’m sorry.” you manage to repeat, not sure how to converse with him, since it had been a while since you talked to anyone other than adults.

The short one spoke first.

“Oh my fucking God, you’re such a-”

“Karkat! Chill, she just said she was sorry!”

The tall one had interrupted and was now actually having to hold him back with his strength.

“No, I am fucking pissed today, why do I have to deal with any more shit?”

“Karkat, it’s not that simple! She’s a girl!” 

You took this moment to speak up and ruin what could have been a peaceful resolution:

“Just because I’m a girl doesn’t mean I can’t take him!”

Karkat and his friend looked at you; Karkat grinned and his friend looked more concerned than anything else.

“So, you think you can take me?”

“I never said that.”

“Sollux, did she?”

“Uh, I don’t think so.”

Karkat spat and glared at you.

“Oh well, who the fuck cares? You asked for it!”

He started to move closer to you.

“Wait, Karkat!”

This was a new voice.

Out of the crowd of trolls and humans, two trolls came forward, a boy and a girl, their faces flushed from all the running they had done.

“Please don’t, she’s a friend!” said the boy as he tried to regain his breath.

Karkat gave them a confused look and pointed at you with his thumb.

“Her?”

They nodded.

Karkat and Sollux looked over at you as you studied your savior’s faces. You couldn’t quite remember if you had ever met these trolls, but they seemed familiar.

You looked at one face to the other then back when you finally remembered.

“Tavros! Nepeta!”

They smiled and tackle hugged you, relief clearly visible on their faces.

“Aradia!”

You smiled too, for it had been such a long time since you had seen them. When you had finally finished your reunion, the gang had seems to calm down since you had first bumped into Karkat.

“Thank you Karkitty for not hurting Aradia!” Nepeta said, her face in a wide grin almost identical to Tavros’s.

“I’m not promising anything. She still deserves to get punished.”

You didn’t like the sound of that, so you started to walk backwards a bit, to be a sufficient amount of space away from him, when the next series of unfortunate events happened:

You backed up into two hullers, whom barreled on but knocked you forward.

When you pitched forward, it just so oh so happened to be in the direction of Karkat.

You just also happened to be within kissing distance.

Still don’t get it?

Well, to put it bluntly, you kissed him when you fell over.

And he was really mad about that.

His face turned a bright cherry red as he managed to get out an angry “Get her!” as you stumbled away towards the middle of the city. 

You now wished the sun had never risen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> MWAHAHAHAHA! NEVER SAW THAT COMING NOW DID YOU? (it's not an official ship in here, it was just to add some spice, ya' know what I mean laddies?) MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! (I'm sorry, this feels like spam, but I really can't express how much of this evil laughter I am actually having!)


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aradia attempts escape and ends up running into more trouble. Or does she?
> 
> PREVIEW: You are Aradia Megido, and you are now stumbling through the alleyways of the lower part of town.

You are Aradia Megido, and you are now stumbling through the alleyways of the lower part of town. The way the town is set up is simple. There is a high and low class part of town, the lower part of the hemospectrum living near the ports and the higher parts living farther away. The humans scattered throughout the town but most lived in between the two parts just to be on the safe side. Right now you were passing by a human family who was hanging clothes to dry on a low gliding wire. 

You jumped up and swung onto the top of the wire, the shouts of the gang slowly but surely increasing. You ran across the length of the wire till you reached the end, promptly jumping up to catch onto a window ledge as the voices behind you continued to grow at a steady pace.

You brought yourself up onto the ledge when you looked back down. They were father than you thought, but still close enough to keep you on edge. When they were 10 meters away from you coordinate location, you shuffled to the corner of the building, hoping that you could reach an open window as a mean of escape, but found no such luck. All you did was put yourself on an even thinner window ledge that was painted an ugly, faded, yellow that had the scribbled words of an adult troll proclaiming ‘we can never l!berate from )(er, she !s powerful and !nv!nc!ble ’ in a splotchy, blue ink pen.

Reading that made you shudder, causing a corner of the window ledge to crumble and fall into the pathway of the gang, causing them to look up and spot you.

“After her!” Karkat said, pointing his finger in your direction.

Sollux was the first to react, swiftly climbing up a few crates next to the building, but not high enough to get to the window ledge.

Nepeta and Tavros were shouting at him to stop and let you go, but he didn’t listen, and neither did the rest of the gang. They all started to attempt at scaling the building as Sollux got ever so nearer to your location. In a fit of panic, you leapt down towards the street, luckily onto a vendors awning that was stable enough to hold your wait and bounce you back into the air and to the street floor. You landed on the dirt path, one hand placed on the ground firmly with the other splayed out to keep you balance while you sat in a kneeling position. You glanced back and saw that a few were trapped on the window ledges while many others were climbing back down. The only person who seemed capable of following you at the moment was Sollux, who was now at the chipped window ledge. You took this as your cue to leave, so you hastily sprinted down the pathway towards a two way division.

‘Perfect.’ You thought, as you dashed to your left, neither Sollux nor the gang in sight as you took one last glance back.

You took this short time alone to see where you were going. You had turned down a more firm road, some pebbles and stones scattered here and there indicating that you were getting to the mid-blood section of the town. You looked up and slowed, seeing that though the sun was still shining, there were large black clouds gathering in the distance. They weren’t close, but they were coming in at a very high rate.

You did not like the feeling the clouds gave you.

Now, you weren’t the one to complain about nice, stormy weather with thunder and lightning; in fact you enjoyed that type of weather, but these storm clouds felt different. It felt somewhere along the lines of oncoming death and depression. The town went quite, and every living thing ceased making noise as everyone’s attention seemed to be drawn to these mysterious clouds. 

The wind stopped and the air you were breathing seemed stiff and musty; the buildings and vendor stands around you seeming more dry by the second. You inhaled deeply, trying to regain oxygen but it was stifling and hard to breathe, making you get a little light headed. You tried to focus your attention back on running away, but the though didn’t mingle long considering you dropped to your knees, dust flying into air from the impact.

You tried to look around to see if anyone else was experiencing the same feeling when you realized no one else was in the street. You tried to cry out despite the fact that you might get caught, but instead got out an airy tone of your breath scratching through your throat. You felt your eyes start to drop when you heard muffled running. You don’t know who it is, but they run over and point a white stick at your face, and say some words that sounded like a foreign language.  
Bright light flashed in your face from the tip of the stick as oxygen returned to your lungs. You were gasping for air when you felt a nice refreshing breeze sweep over you entire body. You looked up to see who had saved you from a near death experience, but all you saw a blurry outline.

“Come on, get up!” the person said, but your vision was still blurry.

You tried to stand up but you knees gave out half way. You were luckily caught by the rude, but friendly stranger, who put your arm around their neck and their own arm around your opposite shoulder in order to hold you up. They sighed with discontent yet they still assisted in half carrying and half dragging you. You both trudged on like that for at least five minutes before you could finally see properly again. The first thing you saw was your knees, which were caked in blood and sand.

Now you were really curious as to who would help you, since rarely anyone would help you because of your blood caste. You were expecting to see a regular human, but what you saw shocked you so much you almost toppled both you and your savior over.

He was taller than you by only a few inches but he looked like an almost exact replica of Dualscar. There were no obvious scar marks and uneven tanned skin, but even so, everything else looked perfect. Their hair style was the same, even with the extremely ridiculous highlight of violet, their horns, their apparent blood color and their sense of fashion.

“Who-” you start to ask, when he interrupts you with a finger to your lips.

“Be quiet and let me tell you somethin’ before you assume I’m being nice to you because I’m not you land dwwellin’ scum, and before you run off, I wwould insist that you at least hear me out before you run into theat fuckin’ stupid loww blooded gang that stupid piss blood and his baby brother is involved in. I can get you out of this and get someone to clean up your wounds, and I promise that the person I’m talkin’ about is as motherly as any troll can get. Kan is somethin’ else when it comes to that stuff, but she wouldn’t be able to beat-”

He finally looked over at you since you’d regained you eyesight, and he took in your messed up form as you decided to take this time to look at more details of him to make sure he looked like Dualscar. Obsessive jewelry collection on both hands? Check. Strong, condescending stance? Check. Glasses? Che-wait, what? You look again at his glasses, and notice that indeed, they are real and were prescription. Hmm, you would have to ask Dualscar later about his descendant to confirm, but your thoughts were interrupted when you heard Karkat’s voice.

“Eridan!”

“Shit.” Eridan murmured, as he turned to face Karkat as half of the gang filed in behind him. You didn’t see Nepeta or Tavros anywhere in the crowd. Sollux soon emerged from the crowd, and as soon as he saw Eridan, he sneered.

“Get the fuck out of here ED!”

“Shut the hell up Sol, and I ain’t leavin’ here without her!” he said, using his free arm to point at you. His other arm was around your shoulders still.  
“Screw that asshole! Change of plans! We need to take her and that’s final!” Karkat said, stepping forward.

Eridan then did the only thing a troll in his position would do.

He pulled his other arm out of your view for a second before bringing it back into view holding out the white stick you had seen early. You quickly recognized it as a wand and wondered how it would be affective at fighting if it had just cured you.

Most of the gang shrunk back when he brought it out, but Sollux and Karkat stood their ground and glared at him. Before Eridan could even cast a spell, a very commanding voice made all three boys, and the gang, cringe in fear.

“Karkat, Sollux and Eridan! What do you think you’re doing?”

You look over and see a very poised woman, just about the same height, if not a little taller, than you.

Karkat was the first to recover from the shock of her appearance.

“Kanaya-”

“No! I will not except this behavior!”

She turned to you and smiled, her anger at the boys magically vanishing.

“It seems you would like some assistance?” she said, offering you a hand.

You gladly accepted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, got all of the chapters posted that I wanted! I have met my quota, and now, some rest! Oh, but worry not my dears, if I feel up to it, I will start on the next chapter! In addition, things will slow down from here on out because school is getting geared up for the nitty-gritty death sentences known as tests every other day and projects that just oh-so happen to be conveniently due right after the weekend. Yeah.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Though help had arrived for Aradia, the group she was with become blocked by some old acquaintances.
> 
> PREVIEW: You are Sollux Captor, and you had to fucking run all the way through half the city, parkour on the sides of houses and encounter your rival all for one shit-flipping girl whom you didn't even get!

You are Sollux Captor, and you had to fucking run all the way through half the city, parkour on the sides of houses and encounter your rival all for one shit-flipping girl whom you didn't even get! You are now angrily seething as you follow Kanaya, Karkat, and the stupid piss-ass girl called Aradia. You were obviously angry, and your rival, Eridan Ampora, was taking advantage of that fact.

“But Sol, you must havve some sort of opinion on the matters on wwhether you become Her Imperious Condescension’s next battery!”

“For the last fucking time ED, I could give a rodent beast’s ass about what happens; as long as I won’t ever have to see you again!”

He genuinely gasped, and looked taken aback.

“…Sol…” he said, a ting of sadness in his voice that he barely succeeded in covering up, but he ended up making himself sound small and weak.

“Sorry.” you reply quickly, looking down to the ground with a bit of shame.

Even though you were rivals; almost on the border of kismesises, you two were like the friends that never stopped arguing and bickering but cared about each other a whole lot more than most of the people in your lives.

You keep walking but slow down slightly when you pull out a tablet from you hoodie pocket. It was chipped off the side of a window ledge you were on before during the chase, and it caught your eye. You reread it the smudged and faded blue lines as you fingers trace around one of the edges. Some of the yellow paint fell away as the words ‘we can never l!berate from )(er, she !s powerful and !nv!nc!ble ’ burned themselves into your mind.

“Wwhat’cha got there Sol?”

You flinch a bit to see that Eridan was peering over your shoulder; figures, that nosy bastard.

“Nothing much.” You reply, shoving the block back into your pocket.

He gives you a queer look then turns his attention back to the front, when you realize you've fallen behind most of the rest of them. You’re about the run ahead to catch up when Eridan speaks to you.

“Hey Sol? I’m sorry about the whole battery thing, I know you’re sensitive about that, but I don’t want you to hate me for that-”

“Shut the fuck up ED. I know your sorry, just stop apologizing already. It sounds weird coming from you.” You say, slightly blushing.

He had to sound like a wriggler when he apologized, which made you pity him, in a way, but not in that way. In addition, he always seemed to get rid of his weird accent when he really wanted to, for example, how he apologized just right now. It’s odd how you do the same thing, except you with your lisp. 

He pauses, and his next sentence, without even looking, you can hear the smile on his face.

“Yeah wwhatevver you fuckin’ piss-blood.”

“Aristo-brat.”

“Land-dwweller.”

“Muggle.”

A gasp from him.

“Take that back!”

“Sure, as long as you agree that we never have the science-magic debate again.”

It takes him a moment to think, then he finally replies with the following:

“…Deal.”

You notice the others have already turn around the upcoming corner, but you two continue on in silence until you hear Karkat’s voice shouting back at you two to “stop hate-making out and to get your skinny asses over here.” You shrug and run as Eridan follows behind you, and when you two arrive, you’re greeted by the sight of Vriska and Equius.

“Well, well, well then, I see you found a new quadrant Eridan?” Vriska sneered as Equius stood by idly.

“No Vvris, you’ve got it all wwrong!” Eridan barked, getting into an deffensive stance.

“Yeah, shut the fuck up Serket!” you say, standing next to him in a similar stance.

All she does is laugh and wave you both off as if you were just flies. She turned to Kanaya, who was also in defensive stance, except she was protecting Aradia, who looked really perplexed about the situation.

“Now my dear Kanaya, what brings you with these…” she looked over Kanaya’s shoulder, looking individually looking at you, Karkat and Aradia, in turn, before continuing. “Peasants, over the high blood border?”

“Because,” Kanaya started, looking Vriska in the eye, “they needed my assistance.”

She then stood up a little straighter and puffed out her chest to seem intimidating, but it didn’t work. The only thing it did was make Vriska scoff and Equius tense up.

“Now now little Maryam, is this what I’m hearing true, or did you meddle in their affair and do what you always do best?”

“I had a right to be there!”

“Ha, like that will get you far Miss. Fussyfangs!”

“Vriska…”

Everyone could barely hear it, but his harsh undertone made it recognizable.

Equius stepped forward, seeming much larger as he did, and approached Vriska, would didn’t even flinch as his shadow consumed her own.

“This bickering is unnecessary and must stop immediately. Your foolishness is enough to make me sick knowing you are so close to my blood cast.”

“Oh yeah, and how do you suppose we resolve this huh? We can’t let her bring in these lowbloods!”

“Watch it spider bitch, I may be small but I will fucking kill you in your sleep!” Karkat growled under his breath, only enough for you, Kanaya, Eridan and Aradia to hear.

Equius had paused and then spoke.

“We will just have to take the girl custody and make the rest of them leave.”

“What?!” was spoken in a unison by all but Equius.

 

“It only seems fair,” he continued, “because she needs to be escorted somewhere safe no? that is the reason you interfered Kanaya?”

Kanaya was silent for a long time before she slowly nodded. Equius seemed satisfied by that answered and moved to grab Aradia’s arm, but instead you jumped in front of her.

“Hell fucking no CT! There is no way we’re just going to let you take her!”

Equius was momentarily shocked before he grew angry.

“Are you defying the caste system Captor?”

“Yes.”

You two stared each other down before a tall figure emerged between you and Equius.

“What’s up motherfuckers?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my God guys I am SO SORRY! I had so much stuff to do and I haven't even started the next chapter yet! ;_; I sincerely hope that I can finish the next chapter in less time, so while you're waiting PLEASE send me some reviews or Kudos I would really appreciate that! Thank you and have a wonderful day!


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A bystander intrudes on the argument, but is unable to stop the uprising conflict between Aradia and Sollux.
> 
> PREVIEW: You are Sollux Captor, and you had to squint up at the taller troll who had just disturbed your glaring contest.

You are Sollux Captor, and you had to squint up at the taller troll who had just disturbed your glaring contest. You finally recognized that the troll who was standing directly in front of you was indeed Gamzee Makara. He looked down at you and Equius, his goofy smile plastered on his face like he hadn’t a care in the world.

Equius immediately stepped back and kneeled, his head bowed and his arms were respectfully put to his side, his previous attitude completely gone and replaces with submissiveness.

“What the mother fuck are you doing Equius? I told you, you don’t have to kneel to me every time we meet, the blood caste isn’t supposed to matter here, but people like you keep it around.” Gamzee slurred, frowning a bit at Equius.

“Is that an order?” Equius responded, looking up a bit from his position.

“For what?”

“To stop kneeling to you.”

“Uh, yeah… sure. Stop motherfucking kneeling to me and uh, stop with this, blood caste nonsense.”

“Oh course Highblood.”

Gamzee frowned and mumbled something under his breath about at how at least he wasn’t doing anything stupidly embarrassing, but nonetheless reassured Equius with a smile when he stood up.

“Right, so what is going on around here?”

“Well, you see-”

And then Kanaya interrupted.

“If you don’t mind, I would like to tell you what had happened as seen from an outsiders point of view with as little biased information as possible, if that wouldn’t be to terribly difficult of a request, Lord Makara.”

Gamzee turned to her and gave her a surprisingly sweet smile and nodded his head.

“Of course Lady Maryam, go right on ahead.”

She beamed back at him and patted her dress down from invisible dust before she started.

“From the point of view of which I have received thus entering this situation is that this young lady here,” she motions to Aradia, with her left hand, “was being pursued by these two,” she then motions towards Karkat and yourself with her right hand, “and their gang. Eridan was there too, but his intentions, whether they be good or evil, were and still are unknown to me. They seemed to be good intentions, but only he would be able to tell us. Continuing on, I ended up taking custody of the young girl as to help her in her current state.”

Kanaya then motioned to Aradia again, this time pointing out her scraped up knees and scratched hands. You were shocked by these revelations, as you didn’t even notice until Kanaya just pointed it out. You also noticed that though it was nice outside, she also looked very pale and exhausted. You supposed the last two symptoms might be from the chase, but the other two you have no clue as to how they got there.  
Kanaya continued.

“As I was escorting her to my hive, we encountered Vriska, who insisted that no low blood was able to enter this area, and that is where our conflict aroused.”  
Gamzee had a thoughtful but serious look on his face when he spoke up.

“Lady Maryam, you can take the little lady to your hive and fix her up, Karkat and Sollux can go back to their gang, and the rest of you can do whatever you usually do besides messing with anyone here. Does that sound fair?”

Kanaya raised her hand. “I agree.”

Everyone else stood there, not wanting to lose this fight out of pride, rage, or other motives. After a few more moments of silence, Equius raised his hand.

“Is it okay if accompany Kanaya to her hive? I would like to make sure that the girl gets better.”

You rolled your eyes and pointed your thumb in his direction and silently pretended to swoon then pointed at Aradia all while looking at Karkat, who in turn snickered under his breath. You then stuck out your forked tongue and acted out puking and he nodded, but almost laughed out loud when you stumbled on your own feet and almost fell over. 

You looked over to see Aradia roll her eyes.

“I have a name you know.”

This brought Kanaya’s attention back to the conversation after observing your and Karkat’s miming sequence, and she gasped.

“Oh my! How rude of me! I am terribly sorry, I wasn’t thinking straight! What is your name my dear?”

Aradia smiled and did a small bow.

“I am Aradia Megido, it’s nice to meet you!”

“And I am Kanaya Maryam, a pleasure to make your acquaintance Now, Equius, do you mind restating that request?”

And this point, it was obvious to everyone but Gamzee and Aradia about his flushed feelings for her. He put up one of his hands to cover his mouth and the bottom part of his face, attempting to cover his blushing. Vriska smirked but said nothing and Eridan face-palmed next to you and sighed, muttering “He’s hopeless…” under his breath. You snickered as Kanaya expectantly waited for his response.

“I w-would like to accompany you and Mrs. Megido to your hive in order to make sure she gets properly t-treated.”

Aradia smiled again-God that smile was getting annoying quickly-but this time, a little softer.

“That’s very kind of you, but I think I’ll be fine if I just went home.”

You almost burst out laughing because she practically rejected him without even knowing it. She glances at you and glares, seeming to see straight through your thoughts. You shudder, but still make a snarky remark.

“And what are you looking at?”

“Nothing much.” She snapped back, obvious distaste in her voice.

Eridan ‘ooh-ed’, but you elbowed him in the gut, making the sound cut off short.

“Wow, okay, calm down, I don’t see any reason why you would hate me so much!”

She turned and marched up to you and looked you dead in the eye, her anger flowing out of her.

“Hate you? That is too kind of a word for the feelings I have towards you right now! I was forced to run half way through town all because of some stupid accident! I would have never came out of my hive today had I not want to see my friends, whom, might I mention, I haven’t seen in over three sweeps! So if you don’t mind, I think you should just shut up and stop laughing your ass off!”

You stood dumbfounded with her speech, and even Karkat was flabbergasted.

“Hey, uh, I’m sorry about that, I, er, we, didn’t know-”

“It doesn’t matter if you knew or not, you should never disrespect anyone! Human or troll!” she said, spinning on her heels to now face Karkat.

He actually shrank back next to Kanaya, who calmly put her arms around him, even though she was smiling in an almost proud, motherly way.

“Aradia, do you know your way home?” Kanaya asked, looking up from Karkat.

“Um, yes? I’m pretty sure I do, I’ve never really been down here before.”

“Okay then, it’s settled. Once I patch you up, I will let Equius and Eridan escort you home. Does that seem fair?”

Aradia shrugged, apparently not caring either way if she had blood stains on her knees or if she even had body guards. It made you wonder what made her so confident even when she had no weapon at hand. Maybe she was like you… No! Impossible! Why would the wretch be anything like you?

You glanced up from your thoughts to see that Kanaya had already started to lead Aradia away towards her hive, as Gamzee and Equius followed in tote. Vriska had already vanished and Karkat was already walking back to the lower part of the town. You didn’t even notice Eridan wasn’t gone until he prodded your shoulder.

“Hey Sol, you okay?” a look of concern crossing over his face.

“Huh? Oh yeah, I’m fine, nothing to worry about.” You sigh, rubbing the back of your head. Your mind wonders back to when the odd clouds had appeared overhead in the distance. They weren’t there yesterday or the day before. The forecast for the whole week was supposed to be sunny, but you had feeling they had nothing to do with the weather.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I finally had time to do something so here you go!! Please review, subscribe and send a Kudos if you want! I really want to know what you guys think about the story and I want to hear suggestions! Thank you for your support and I will see you next chapter!


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aradia agrees to go with Kanaya to her hive....
> 
> PREVIEW:You are Aradia Megido, and you made enemies with a gang and friends with a few nobles in less than twelve hours, but you didn’t get to see Nepeta and Tavros as long as you would’ve liked. You missed them so much, so you mentioned your feelings to Kanaya.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah, long time no see, but I finally got a little motivation to continue this!! Oh, I have so much more in store too!! (I hope I can actually make it that far...)
> 
> Well, enjoy!!

You are Aradia Megido, and you made enemies with a gang and friends with a few nobles in less than twelve hours, but you didn’t get to see Nepeta and Tavros as long as you would’ve liked. You missed them so much, so you mentioned your feelings to Kanaya. She said she had no idea where they could have been, but you already had an idea. They probably took the wrong turn back at the two-way split you encountered during the chase. You frown, wondering why Nepeta and Tavros couldn’t have found you instead of some obnoxious tall idiot and his short angry friend. You puff out you cheeks in discontent when you feel two bony fingers poke your bloated cheeks, forcing the air out of your mouth. You look up to see Gamzee, whom you were formally introduced to on the way to Kanaya’s hive. He was smiling, the right corner of his mouth higher than the left, making his smile crooked and charming in its own way.

“Come on sis, don’t look so angry! You look so much nicer when you’re happy!” he said, pulling his fingers away from your face.

You smiled at him, and he smiled an even wider smile back, revealing his sharp teeth that didn't seem so menacing due to his sheer happiness.

You glanced behind you and saw Eridan and Equius were bringing up the rear. Equius seemed to have an air of confidence while walking the streets, his posture upright and dignified, opposed to Eridan who was hunched over and staring at the ground, his face in deep concentration.

You almost stopped in the middle of the road when you realized he had changes clothes. Upon looking for a little longer, you noticed that he had really just thrown a black cloak over his body, his cape and fancy clothes now covered. You briefly wandered why he would do that until your thoughts stopped when he looked up and made eye contact with you. You made some sort of squeak and turned back around to face the front.

For the rest of the time until reaching Kanaya’s hive, life seemed a bit void; you were very silent and marched in step with the rest of the group to what seemed to be an invisible metronome clicking to an unknown tempo. In fact, time itself had seemed to slow down for everyone around your small pod of trolls, making everything seem so… out of reach from reality. ‘Maybe it’s the blood loss?’ you had wondered, looking down at your knees.

Your knees were still bleeding a little even though they had already scabbed over the wounds, and you dismissed that as a possibility. You looked at the sky and squinted at the sun, quickly looking back down due to its brightness and the increased sense of nostalgia it brought you.

“It’s not the sun…” you muttered under your breath. ‘Well, until now that is.’ A bitter thought came, causing you to sneer at how weak you felt.  
Looking forward again, you continued to march behind Kanaya, tilting your head up a few degrees to see where you were headed. One shop in particular caught your attention when you were scanning the road ahead: a white shop accented with bright green, and a dark jade clock tower sitting on the far left corner of the establishment. It seemed to be calling out to anyone who would listen and struck each second with some sort of inanimate purpose.

You guess you had stopped walking sometime during you thought process, and Kanaya was shaking your shoulder.

“Dear? Are you okay? You've gotten very pale…”

You turned to her and smiled, cursing yourself for causing yourself to attract this type of attention. “I’m fine Kanaya, thank you.” You brushed her hand off your shoulder and stood a little straighter, trying to prove that you were okay. She gave you a look of concern but nodded anyways, despite a stern frown being plastered on her face.

“If you say so… Well, come come, we’re almost there.” She said after a seemingly long pause, waving for the rest of them to follow. You stood there for a few more seconds, glancing back at the shop before jogging to catch up to them. When you caught up, you ended up walking next to Equius. You eyed him from the corner of your eye, trying to not seem obvious about it, but he quickly caught your gaze. Flustered, you tried to explain yourself.

“I-I’m sorry, I was just, well, not really, but I just trying to-”

“No, it’s okay, I get that a lot.” He said quietly, his voice a lot different from before.

“What?”

“I’m saying people usually stare me is all…” he said, coughing a bit to clear his throat. He smiled nervously and patted your head softly. “You are okay, right?” he asked kindly, a little bit of sweat starting to accumulate on the side of his face.

You smiled kindly back at him and nodded. “Yeah, I’m alright. Thank you for your concern.”

He nodded back at you and turned his attention back to the front, pulling a towel out and wiping the side of his face.

After that, the trip seemed to be in a much more relaxed atmosphere.

“And here we are!” Kanaya chirped proudly, placing her hands on her hips as you stared at the hive in front of you. It was, to say the least, interesting. But interesting was good.

The hive was shaped with elegant curves and was low to the ground with a few exceptional towers jutting out from random places with varied heights. Small pale stones made up the building and multi-colored banners draped from the towers, making the hive look like it had a tented rooftop.

“It’s so… fantastic…” you breathed in awe, causing Kanaya to look back at you.

“Why thank you! I decorated it myself!”

“You did?!” you asked in surprised, turning away from the brilliantly colored hive.

“Er, well, not all by myself, I had help with making the curtains…” she mumbled, her face flushing slightly as she looked down at the ground.

“Why so modest Lady Maryam? You did a lot of the work yourself did you not?” Gamzee said, feeling the texture of one of the low hanging curtains as he said so.  
“Ah yes, but my mother helped with the process much more than you think-”

“You have a mom?!” you asked excitedly, accidentally interrupting Kanaya. You were going to ask more questions when an elegant woman who looked like an older version of Kanaya walked out of the hive’s door, her pose that of a queen.

“Kanaya dear, is this a new friend of yours?” she asked, smiling in your direction.

“Mom!” Kanaya said happily, a bright smile crossing her face. She walked over to her mother to hug her as a look of surprise crossed your face.

When the moment passed and mother and daughter had chatted for a bit, Kanaya’s mother walked over to you, a gentle smile on her face.

“I've heard you've went through a lot today, so please, come inside and I’ll get you fix right up. And while I’m doing that,” she continued, looking back at the two boys who snapped their heads up when they heard her pause, meeting her gaze with surprised faces, “I’ll treat you all to some treats. Does that sound good?”  
Equius gave a solemn nod as Eridan looked sideways at the brick building next to him, kicking a rock off to the side and watching it roll of into the shadow of the wall.

“I see then, well, it’s settled! Come on dear, let’s get you inside alright?” she said, tugging on your arm, half dragging half leading you towards the entrance to the hive.

You got inside to be greeted by bright colors again, but this time there was more jade than anything else in the room. You were sat at a high bar stool while the others proceeded to take a seat in bean bag chairs, all except for Equius. While Kanaya’s mom was away, you turned to Equius.

“Why don’t you take a seat Equius? You must be tired from today.” You urged, a bit of worry laced in your voice as he started to lightly sweat again.

“I am fine, really. Do worry more about yourself though, that would make me feel better.” He said back, taking out his towel again to dab his face. “Oh, there is Ms. Dolorosa!”

“Dolorosa?” you ask, turning to where he was looking to only see Kanaya’s mom. 

‘Oh, must be her name then!’ you thought to yourself, looking down at your knees to only discover that they had reopened. Cursing under your breath you realized you had been picking at the scab subconsciously.

“Oh dear, well, we’ll have to get temporary bandages for those.” You heard the Dolorosa’s voice say, all the words very fuzzy and distant.

“Yeah,” you mumble back, lifting your face to look for something to concentrate on. 

“Oi, Ara, snap out o’ it!” you heard Eridan’s voice say, but that to became like a dream.

You managed to find a window to only see that outside the clouds had accumulated once again over the city.

“Those are really fast clouds…” you commented before falling out of consciousness.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Old enemies meet again and Cronus finds out what happened with Aradia.
> 
> PREVIEW: You are now Cronus Ampora and you felt something you hadn't felt in a long time, and it wasn't a good one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So who want's to know why I haven't updated since last year? Everyone? Okay good, cause I'm telling you guys anyway.
> 
> To be honest, I had forgotten to update on here, and instead I updated on FanFiction without doing the same here. Luckily, one of my friends reminded me of my duties, (thank you Sam) and now here is the next chapter!
> 
> In addition to that, I've been informed of many errors in the previous chapters, so please bear with me if I go back and edit. Thank you all and I hope you enjoy this mass-update!

You are now Cronus Ampora and you felt something you hadn't felt in a long time, and it wasn't a good one.

You stood in Aradia's hive, coffee in hand with your green fuzzy slipper snuggly on your feet, a damp towel wrapped around your shoulders and a pair of black pants hanging loosely on your hips. You shift your weight, uncomfortable at how familiar the feeling is and how you couldn't place what it was.

There was a knock at the front of the hive, but you ignored it, continuing to try and place the feeling you were having.

Another knock, except louder this time.

You turned to glare at the door, hoping the person would just go away, until you heard a voice from the other side commanding something to other people. No, it couldn't be…

You rushed to the door and steadily opened it to behold what was once yours in combat.

"Aranea?!"

"Cronus?!"

After inviting Aranea in for some coffee and after she shooed away her goons back to her ship, you still felt tense. She hadn't said anything since you'd open the door and was being scarily silent. You briefly wondered if she had planned all of this, but quickly dismissed it due to the fact that both parties sounded surprised, and this was, for now, your home front. You would obviously have the tactical advantage since you knew this general area better, therefore being able to defeat her quicker. Yes, that made seemed to make sense-

"Cronus."

You snap out of your thoughts to look at Aranea, her hat to the side and her gloved hands enveloped around a maroon colored mug, steam drifting into the air from the coffee.

"Yes?" you ask, surprised at how nervous your voice sounded. You hope she didn't pick up on it, but alas, it seemed she had, and she glared up at you from the couch.

"Why the hell are you wearing green?" she growled, her mouth turning into a sneer as she said 'green.'

That was it? She was mad because you were wearing… green? Well, no matter. It seemed you could deal with something as trivial as this.

"Vwell ya' see here Aranea, I don't vwant anyone to know I'm here, so I simply decided to change my appearance." You state, quite confident the answer would suffice.

"And what about the hive Cronus? Did you buy this too as part of your scheme?"

You coughed in surprise and readjusted your footing, but decided that you weren't comfortable with standing anymore, and walked around to the couch to sit across from Aranea, placing your mug of coffee on the table in front of you.

"I'm actually here on rent," you say slowly, folding your hands together as she raises her eyebrow at you.

"From whom?" She asked quickly, grinning now.

"None o' yer concern." You shoot back, trying to end the conversation.

"And do they know who you are?" She hummed, seeming to enjoy the fact that she was now unwanted.

"Yes." You say, frowning now. What the hell was she trying to get at?

"So it's okay if they know but no one else."

"Vwell o' course, she did savwe me after all-"

"She? Saved you?!" She almost screeched the sentence in laughter as the coffee in her cup almost spilt out.

"Yes, and she's quite a fine lass as vwell." You said confidently, trying to regain a sense of dignity from your old kismesis's laughter.

"Okay, and what? She's probably also a sexy lady that just oh so happens to be your current love interest?" she continued, laughing at her own joke, putting her coffee on the table to avoid it from going all over the place.

You felt your eye twitch. You couldn't believe that's what she took you for, and to insult Aradia that way- well, granted she didn't know Aradia yet, but still! To assume something like that is just terrible!

You frowned even more, now unaffected by Aranea's continuous laughing when you heard a knock at the door.

'Probably Aradia or her parents.' You thought as you got up to open the door.

When you did though, you were greeted by one of Aranea's goons who was holding two young trolls under each of his arms.

"Mindfa- oh, er h-hello there Orphaner, where is the Marquis?" he asked, the young goon trying to look around behind you. You sigh and motion for Aranea to come to the door, which she does while trying to stop giggling. When she does, she looks down at the goon and her face become serious when she sees the two wiggling trolls in his arms.

"What is this?" she asks, almost disgusted by the two children.

"Um, they said they wanted to come to this hive saying they know who live here-"

You felt Aranea give you a look, but you ignored it. Does she really have to be so skeptical?

"I'll deal with them." You say, patting the young goon's shoulder to tell him to release the trolls.

He looks at Aranea, who nods to him to do so. As soon as they're dropped, one of them starts complaining as the other one jumps away and looked ready to fight.

"Who the hell are you guys? This isn't your hive you know!" The green one shouted, putting up her fists.

You could hear Aranea chuckle at the tiny one's attitude and whisper "Cute," underneath her breath, but you kneeled down to her height and patted her on the head. "You're a friend of Aradia's right?" you asked, ruffling the hair between her horns. She looked surprised at your knowledge of this but nodded her head firmly.

"Aradia? Ah, the owner of this?" Aranea asked, tapping the hive with her knuckles.

"Yup." You said, standing up and walking over to the other troll. This one was a little taller than the green one, but seemed a little more timid.

"Uh, h-hey you, don't get any closer you hear?" he stammered, taking a step back.

You chuckled darkly and walked over to him, amused by his little act.

"I promise, no harm vwill come your vway." You say, turning to stand next to him and patting his back with a bright smile on your face.

"A-and why should w-we trust you, uh, strangers?" He asked, making you stop and think of why he should. You were acting a bit shady, so you could understand why no one would trust you at this point. Even the green one turned skeptically to you, raising her eyebrow as you thought.

"…Ram mom…" you say, trying to show the young trolls about how well you knew Aradia without giving anything away to Aranea, who was intently listening to everything being said.

This seemed to click with the green one immediately, for her eyes sparked with recognition, and quickly turned to shock, suspicion, and then with a glance back at Aranea then to you, they sparkled with the acceptance to your scheme. You smiled in acknowledgement to her recognition of the plan, and looked down at the bull horned one, waiting for him to catch on. His friend seemed to realize he didn't know what was going on, so she grabbed his hand and lead him to inside the hive, telling him how "Why shouldn't we trusted strangers every once in a while?"

It sounded like a piss poor excuse, but you were grateful she understood the situation at hand. Aranea gave you a raised eyebrow and you shrugged, pretending like you didn't know what went down. She gave you a judging look for a few more seconds before she swept back into the hive. You followed her in to see her retrieve her hat from the couch and the two young trolls run into the kitchen and watch her from behind the counter.

"Well, I'll be off, Orphaner Dualscar." She emphasized, probably trying to get the young trolls to fear you. How stupid, they probably trusted him over her any day.

"Good! And please, don't bother on coming back, Marquise Spinerrette Mindfang." You said back, grinning as her face fell at your unfriendly departure statement.

She left after a short moment, slamming the door behind her. After a few seconds, you let go of the breath you were unaware of holding. You then turned to the young trolls, as they both came out of the kitchen and stood side by side.

"Vwell, as ya' know, I am Orphaner Dualscar, and also a temporary guest at your friends hivwe. And vwhat might yer names be?" You asked, trying not to be awkward about what had just occurred.

"I'm Nepeta Leijon, and this is Tavros Nitram!" The young cat like green troll said, while motioning to the boy next to her when saying the second name.

"I see," you say, putting a hand on your chin, "and vwhy are you here?"

"Because we thought Aradia might be back!" Nepeta said, her whole demeanor becoming grim.

"Back?" you question, wondering if she had indeed returned without you noticing.

"Yeah, she got in trouble with our gang leader and-"

"Vwait, she vwhat?"

"…she…got in trouble with our gang leader?"

"An' then vwhat?"

"She ran away."

"…"

"…"

"Is she safe?"

"I don't know."

You paused and thought a moment. You really couldn`t have ever predicted this outcome. Really, you couldn't have! You had no idea this island had a gang on it until now.

You motioned for the young trolls to sit on the couches, which they did hastily as you went into the kitchen and grabbed two bags of chips and a loaf of bread. You grabbed a bag and stuffed them into it, and then grabbed a kitchen knife, putting it into your belt.

You walked to the window next to the door, opened the curtains, and peeked outside. Aranea and her crew had evacuated quickly you noted, nodding to yourself. You then turn to the two trolls, who looked more nervous than they wanted to let on.

"Er, Nepeta and uh, Tavwros right?"

Nepeta and Tavros perked up, though Tavros was mumbling something like "It's TAVros, not TavWROS, but whatever…" and had stood up.

You looked each of them in the eye, and smiled.

"Are ya' prepared to go search for Aradia?" you stated, hoisting the bag over your shoulders.

Nepeta's eyes lit up and she nodded eagerly, and Tavros looked surprised, yet nodded just the same.

"Good. `Cause vwe're headed out nowv."


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The fateful meeting of Eridan and Cronus comes, but how it goes no one knows... until you read it that is.
> 
> PREVIEW: You are now Eridan Ampora, and you just witnessed Aradia fainting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here's another one!!! (I told you. It would be a mass-update. This is partially in celebration of 4-13 and also in celebration of more updates too!!)
> 
> Also!! If you catch a mistake or if you just happen to really like the chapter, please comment! It really makes my day when you guys comment!! Thank you for sticking with me and reading this, so please enjoy!!!

You are now Eridan Ampora, and you just witnessed Aradia fainting. It was surreal to be honest, and everything seemed to go slowly, like a train wreck you couldn't look away from.

Her body had become relaxed, too relaxed for someone conscious, and her eyes flickered shut, her whole soul seeming to be dead within the second. Luckily, Equius was next to her, so he managed to catch her just in time before she had fallen off of the bar stool. Everyone was more or less shocked at the event, and this pushed the Dolorosa and Kanaya to increase their working speed.

"Equius, I would like for you to carry her up to the bathroom please." Kanaya instructed, lightly pushing him to follow her mother as she gathered the bandages on the counter next to him.

Equius nodded seriously, though his face showed his concern for the girl.

You looked outside the window, spotting the same damned clouds outside, except they were a lot closer than last time. You mumbled some vulgarities before rushing outside, ignoring the panicked questions from everyone inside.

Glad you had kept your black cloak on, you half jogged half ran all the way to the outskirts of town, the clouds bringing with them a thick fog, trailing behind them only slightly, the whole thing giving off a grim scene.

"Wwhat the hell is goin' on here?" you mumbled to yourself, pulling your wand out of your cloak pocket and pointing it at the sky where the clouds were coming from.

_"Depulso!"_

Your results were immediate as you watched the clouds halt and then reverse their course, the fog following suit.

When they were about a few ten meters into their retreat, a sudden wave of exhaustion came over you and you felt your stomach clench up. You pulled down your wand quickly and brought your arms around your stomach, the sickening feeling still unsettled and the tempting lure of sleep increased. Your eyesight became blurry, but you couldn't figure out why. You knew the task would be more difficult the second time, but not this difficult. You shook your head but immediately regretted, your mind feeling like it was swirling around in your skull as the clouds continued their retreat.

"The clouds are goin' the opposite direction, howv queer..." An unfamiliar voice said, the speaker out of your sight.

Panicking at the thought of being seen, you threw the hood of your cloak over your head, you horns being covered in the process. You backed up into the nearest building, the wall solidly hitting your back in an oddly comforting manner. Sliding down into a sitting position, you adjusted your glasses and blinked a few times in order to see a little more clearly, the world becoming clearer and the sickening feeling somewhat disappearing.

Three trolls walked into view, one adult and two teens. You recognized the younger ones as Tavros and Nepeta, but you didn't recognize the older one, who seemed to be an olive blood by the looks of his clothes. Maybe it was Nepeta's ancestor? No, the horns didn't look like hers, in fact they looked a lot more like…

Your brain seemed to stop in its tracks.

They looked like your horns.

No, it's common right? Everyone has so many different horns, it's only natural some repeat every now and then right? Yes, that seems right, nothing else would make sense! Besides, your ancestor would conform to the banning system here, so he or she probably wouldn't be able to even get here. You went over this information again and again and affirmed it with yourself, giving yourself a small satisfied nod. You began to stand up, but your movement was already noticed by the older troll, who already had a kitchen knife at your throat. You squeaked, putting your hands up to show surrender, your wand slipping out of your hand in your panic. He eyed the wand curiously and then looked back at you, probably putting the pieces together about the odd weather change and you being a magician.

"Eridan?"

You look around the troll in front of you to see Nepeta, who had recognized your wand.

"Eridan, is that you?" she asked, her face confused but otherwise concerned that you might actually get killed.

You nod, slowly pulling off your hood to show her it was you. She smiled brightly at you and ran up to where you were, taking your hands down and holding them in front of you with her own. You noticed how cold your hands were compared to hers, which were warm and soft, and practically felt like happiness in itself. You felt yourself smiling too, which was odd since you don't like smiling at people, but it felt natural, even with the odd green guy next you.

Now that you were thinking about it, he hadn't said anything to you. You turn to look at him but he's just staring at you in disbelief. 'Maybe it's because he threatened a highblood.' You thought, thinking that made enough sense to dismiss his staring. 'In addition, he probably hasn't even seen a highblood of my status. Yes, that is also plausible-'

"Is yer last name Ampora?" the unfamiliar voice said again, breaking you out of your thoughts to look at him.

"Huh?" you asked surprised, you ear fins flitting at how odd his voice sounded.

"Is yer last name-"

"Alright listen hear random guy! I don't know who you are, but Tavros and I only temporarily trust you! Don't go snooping around when our sole mission right now is to find Aradia!" Nepeta said almost angrily, a growl bubbling up from her throat as she seemed to stand between you and this other troll protectively.

He gave her a glare but didn't push the issue any further, straightening his posture and fixing the sling on his bag, his figure that of someone who could be potentially very dangerous. He looked down at you two like you were lower than him, and it gave you the shivers, though you repressed it for the most part.

"Vwell, if that is to be vwhat vwe solely focus on in this mission, shall we get to it and leave this runt behind?" He asked, clearly annoyed at being interrupted beforehand.

Nepeta started to nod but you took a step forward to him, holding yourself up to make you look more confident, though you didn't feel it.

"You're lookin' for Ara right? Long curly hair and ram horns?" you ask, only giving a little information to prove your worth to go with them.

Nepeta and Tavros both lit up at the description.

"Yeah! Eridan, I didn't know you knew Aradia!" Tavros said, taking this chance to run up next to Eridan and Nepeta.

The older trolls face went from annoyed to concerned in less than a second, his voice doing the same as he kneeled down in front of you to get to your eyelevel.

"Is she alright lad? She's not hurt is she?"

His voice sounded desperate almost, and you kind of felt bad for him, but you had trouble connecting the pieces. How did this troll know Aradia? What was their connection? You pushed those thoughts to the side, now wasn't the time to play detective.

"Yeah, she's alright, she's just a bit cut up from the chase is all." 'And from those clouds…' you thought to yourself, smiling when the three other trolls surrounding you gave a sigh of relief.

"Thank goodness she's alright, thank you lad." The older troll said, smiling as he stood up.

You nod back at him and feel a tug on your hand. You look over to see that Tavros was tugging on your sleeve, and signed to show them where she was. You smile and nod again, and take his hand to start leading the way. Nepeta talks all the way there, earning responses from the individuals of the group every now and then, and sometimes making them laugh.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The squad moves on towards Aradia, while Cronus reunites with someone he did not expect to see on the island.
> 
> PREVIEW: You are now Orphaner Dualscar, and you have met your descendant

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Are you surprised yet?? I've updated three times in a day! THREE!!! Does that mean I won't stop, can't stop?
> 
> Maybe!
> 
> It is April 13th after all and as we all know, that is a miraculous day for us Homestucks!

You are now Orphaner Dualscar, and you have met your descendant. You don't know how fate had decided that this was the best way to meet him, but it was obviously made to torture you. Due to circumstances, you couldn't even ask him questions about him or anything else, and it was throwing you off. 'How embarrassing,' you thought, 'I can't even reveal myself to him here either.'

"Hey mister!" Nepeta's voice squeaked, as she started walking backwards in front of you, breaking you from your thoughts. "What's your name?"

You smiled. The only other reason behind asking for your name besides trying to give you an opportunity to continue hiding yourself from your descendant is because she forgot what you introduced yourself as, but considering how good she is at picking up on things, you guess it's the first option.

"Cronus lass, my name is Cronus." You said, giving a slight bow towards her.

She giggled and turned around and jogged up behind Eridan, pouncing on him in her excitement.

"Wwhat the heck Nep? Are you trying to kill me?"

"No! But Mr. Cronus did that little bow thing that you do sometimes when you're around Feferi!"

"I w-wwhat?" he stuttered, his face turning a light shade of violet quickly as he swat her off his back. "I do not!"

She cackled as she rolled to the ground and hopped behind you, holding the back of your shirt to make sure she didn't swing too far around you.

"Knock it off guys!" Tavros said, holding Eridan back from chasing Nepeta, who was currently sticking out her tongue at him.

'Well, he's made some friends at least.' You thought to yourself, as you watched the three bickering among themselves. You decided to join in on the fun.

"Who is this Feferi lad? Is she as beautiful as Her Imperious Condescension?"

Eridan stopped in his tracks and looked up at you. "You'vve seen Her Imperious Condescension?"

You too stopped, realizing you might have over stepped you boundaries. "Vwell, from a crowvd, yeah…" you said slowly. It wasn't a lie to be honest, but you tried to get the conversation back towards teasing him; you never did well when pressured like that, it always resulted in something precious getting destroyed.

"Eridan vwas it? Vwell, I assume because of your status, she vwould havwe to be of a noble as vwell, am I right?"

Eridan began to look embarrassed again, his fins flitting down on the sides of his head.

"Wwell Fef, she actually is The Condesce's descendant, but don't tell anyone I said that! Only a few people know `cause she doesn't wwant to cause a panic, ya `knoww?"

Now it was your turn to be surprised. Well well well, imagine that. Her descendant was here too? No wonder she hadn't found her yet. She doesn't even know about this island as far as you know, and you know a lot.

"So lad, you havwe a flushed crush on this lass?" you asked smugly, leaning towards him.

He looked away, his embarrassed look going away to be replaced by a sadder one. "I used to, but that's all in the past. She rejected me, but it doesn't matter, wwe're stil good friends."

You frowned. It sounded almost identical to your situation, but you at least had a fling with her. The poor lad didn't even get that. You dropped the subject, deciding that it probably was best not to press for more info.

"So, vwhy is Aradia here Eridan?" you asked, since no one had even asked yet and naturally, you were curious since this was the higher end of town.

"Oh, right, about that." Eridan said, seeming to remember the original purpose of their journey. "As I had said beforehand, she got all sorts of banged up during the chase that I wwas not a part of, so Kan took her to her hivve to help fix her up. Though before I left, she had fainted so…"

"So what?"

"I don't know, I just, uh, oh! There's Kan's hivve ovver there!" Eridan said breathlessly, now pushing the other three trolls to the door.

Eridan knocked on the door twice before opening it, everyone walking in to see an indigo blood and a purple blood sitting on the couch talking somewhat calmly.

They reminded you of Horrus and Kurloz a little bit…

Just as you were thinking that, you look up to see the Porrim descending down the stairs, to look up, catch your eye, and gasp dramatically.

"Cronus?!" she said, holding her chest and leaning against the railway on the stairs, shock obvious on her face.

"Porrim?!" you said, walking swiftly over to her, forgetting about everyone else being there. "It's been two sweeps and this is where you were? I would've never have thought I would bump into you here!"

"Cronus, this is my hive, of course you're going to bump into me here!" Porrim was saying harshly, though she wasn't protesting to being accused of disappearing.

You shook your head and looked over your shoulder at the other trolls in the living room, watching you two interacting.

"Dears, if you would," Porrim started, talking over your shoulder, "Cronus and I have some things to talk about. Now, if you would excuse us for a moment…"

With that she pulled you along with her and down the hallway, twisting into a small circular room with a small window and brightly colored clothes hanging about everywhere.

"This is so not your style Porrim." You said quietly, more to yourself than her, but nonetheless she heard you and jabbed you in the stomach with her elbow.

"First of all Cronus, how did you even get on the island? There is a ban on trolls like you!"

You sighed. This was going to take some time. You started to explain everything. Everything since your ship wreck to how you were currently dressed as an olive blood and living with Aradia.

She listened to everything and didn't interrupt, no questions, no comments, nothing. Just listened. You were grateful to her for that.

After you were done explaining, she waited for a moment, to make sure you were done, and then nodded.

"So, you're saying the great and mighty Orphaner Dualscar is now at the beck and call of a child? And not only that, you're an illegal immigrant!" she said smirking.

You grinned back and hugged her. "Good to see ya' too ya' glowvin' blood bank."

She hugged back, and for a moment you had forgotten why you were there, until you heard a voice eerily similar to Porrim's.

"Mom! She's conscious again!"

Porrim pulled from the hug and shouted back "Be right there!" and turned to look at you.

"Your secret is safe with me Cronus, but you will have to help me out you know! This is a very big secret to keep!"

"Yeah yeah, I knowv. By the vway, I lowve vwhat ya' did vwith yer hair!"

She smiled and blushed a bit. "Ah yes, well, quite a funny story how that happened!" she then took your hand and led you upstairs.


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aradia and Cronus are together again! Things should be better, right? Wrong.
> 
> PREVIEW: You are now Aradia Megido, and you have the worst headache in your life and the bathroom you're in is huge and green.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AAAAAAAnd fourth times the charm!! Happy 4-13 everybody! I'm kind of glad I waited this long to update on here honestly, it's always a nice surprise to see that a fic you like has updated! Especially on such an important date as well!!
> 
> Welp, please pardon my rambling, and enjoy the new updates as well as this chapter!

You are now Aradia Megido, and you have the worst headache in your life and the bathroom you're in is huge and green.

You cough a bit and try to sit up, having been previously lying on the floor on a nice soft rug. You push yourself up successfully against the bathtub, a damp cloth from your forehead falling into your lap as you look over to see Kanaya busily working on something. She glanced over at you and smiled kindly.

"Hey Aradia, you okay?" she said, scooting over next to you to take the towel from your lap.

You nod slightly and give her a smile in return, though you aren't sure of how convincing it is.

"Alright, well I'll be right back. I'll go get my mom and return with some tea, how does that sound?"

You mumble something that you don't even understand and she nods at you and gets up and leaves, her figure blurring as she got past the bathroom door.

You closed your eyes and leaned your head back, trying to get rid of the dizzy feeling in your head. It felt terrible. You hated feeling this weak! You had no idea what could possibly make you feel this way, but you didn't like it and you wanted to get rid of it completely.

Your mind wanders through the past few days, and the first thing on your mind is the scroll. Where did you put that darn scroll? Ah yes, now it's coming back to you. You put it in your chest, the chest next to your wardrobe, the wardrobe where Dualscar's weapon is. It's such a pretty weapon, so intricate and colorful. Ah, when you get back home, you have to show him where it is. You wondered if Dualscar noticed how long it was taking you. What was he doing right now?

"Stop stop stop Aradia! Stick to one topic or you'll fall asleep again." You muttered to yourself, smacking your face with both hands to wake yourself up. Oddly enough, the slap on your face felt good and it made you wake up a bit more so you waited for the pain to fade before you hit yourself again.

You smiled. You probably looked stupid as hell doing this.

You got up off the floor, feeling a lot better, though some dizziness was there, you could still stand on your feet, and that was good enough.

Hobbling to the hall and leaning against the bathroom's door frame, you saw that to the left the hall extended far down and swirled up into a spiral staircase, and to the right was a wall that curved and had two doors on it, another hall following after the curve and leading to more doorways.

"Huge…" was all that escaped your mouth before you heard people walking up the stair case. First was Kanaya, then Dolorosa, then…

"Dualscar!" you said, your face brightening up at seeing him.

He smiled at you with one of his toothy grins and you grinned back, before you realized you shouldn't have used his title. You looked at Kanaya, who was looked briefly confused before turning around and closing up on him. He put his hands up defensively but Kanaya stayed far enough to where he felt comfortable enough to put his arms back down.

"I should've known you looked familiar." She breathed, her slightly greyed jade eyes glaring at him.

"Dear, let's not talk about that right now." Dolorosa said, holding her daughters shoulders gently. "For now, it's best to not question it."

Kanaya made a pouty face, but her anger remained. You briefly wandered where her anger came from but dismissed it. It wasn't something you should get involved with.

Slightly limping as you walked, you managed to get over to Dualscar and give him a hug, to which he returned happily.

"Sorry Dualscar, I didn't mean to make you worry." You said, butting your head into his chest.

"Vworry? No, not really vworry, more like fear for those vwho hurt ya'! If anything, you'd kick their arse before I'd evwen get there!"

You giggled and butt your head to his chest again.

"Oh, I need to go get your weapon for you don't I?" you said, remembering your thoughts from before.

You heard the Dolorosa scoff and he looked at her sharply, but you could still hear her giggling under her breath. Then he turned to you and smiled, shaking his head as he did so.

"Nah, that's quite alright lass. Forget about it. You still havwen't hung out with yer pals right?"

You nod your head, trying to keep with the conversation even though it wasn't going very fast.

"Yeah, I haven't but I don't know where they are, so I won't be able to hang out with them…"

He chuckled darkly, and took your hand and dragged you downstairs with him. You didn't have time to protest but you followed anyway. When you got down to the first floor, you were greeted by Tavros and Nepeta talking to Gamzee and Equius on the couch, while Eridan seemed to be shining his wand.

"Aradia!" Tavros said, jumping up to his feet and running over before anyone else had seen you there.

"Tavros, Nepeta!" You exclaimed, surprised that they were there.

"You'vwe got some good friends there lass." Dualscar said, putting his hands on his hips and taking a step back to let the two trolls hug you. "They came lookin' for ya' evwen though they had lost ya'."

You smiled gratefully at your two friends and laughed a bit.

"Ah, I see you are well Miss. Aradia. That is great news." Equius said, giving you a kind smile.

"Yes, I am well, thank you Equius." You said, slightly bowing towards him to show your gratitude.

He awkwardly bowed a little bit back, and Gamzee laughed at him, patting him on the back to assure him that his actions weren't awkward.

"How did you guys find me anyways? None of you could've known where I was since I went the opposite way at the split path."

Nepeta pointed at Eridan, who had finished polishing his wand. He glanced over at you guys and blushed, embarrassed that so many people were looking at him.

"It wwas nothin' really! Besides, they wouldn't havve found me if Cronus ovver there hadn't found me!"

Dualscar laughed a bit, waving his hand.

"No no, don't give me the credit! Besides lad, what were you doin' there? Don't those weird clouds freak ya' out?"

Eridan's face went dark immediately at the mention of those clouds.

"Yes, they do, but no one else is going to get rid of them." He said, looking over at you when he started to continue talking. "And I believe the clouds are the source of why you're fainting. I don't know how or why, but I would recommend you stay away from them or stay inside at all times."


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A plan is forged.
> 
> PREVIEW: You are now Sollux Captor, and you are currently trying to win a game of chess.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So my twin had found tons of mistakes after I went on a mass editing spree, but that's okay, because I will try to do another mass editing spree in the future to try and fix all of those mistakes too. (If you see errors in any of these chapters please tell me, it would help me a lot!)
> 
> Also, updates will be sporadic, with no real schedule. I'll try to let you guys know when I plan on disappearing but I can't promise anything.
> 
> This chapter is also a little longer than it was supposed to be, but think of it as a treat! Please enjoy!

You are now Sollux Captor, and you are currently trying to win a game of chess. Not that it was hard, but you had to at least pretend you were trying, or else Karkat would accuse you of not taking him seriously again.

Meanwhile, Nepeta and Tavros had come back. Though they were acting a little weird when they did, they quickly went back to normal and were currently playing a card game next to the crate you were using as a table, quiet little squeals of excitement and hisses of "yes!" arising from them as they drew their cards. You think it was a game called "Go Fish" or something ridiculous of the sorts. A wiggler game, at best.

You mind shifts back to when the whole ordeal of that one girl came about. Why were you still thinking about it? You're not sure, but what you did know was that you were still pretty mad you were forced to run around town on a whim just because Karkat got angry, but at this point, you couldn't care less. What was her name again…?

"Oi, KK."

"What asswipe? I'm thinking."

"Nothing, just trying to remember what that girl's name was. Arsenic? Arabic? Arcade?"

"Aradia!" Nepeta supplied from the side, humming a tune of victory as she placed down the rest of her cards in front of her, Tavros sighing in defeat as she turned towards you guys. "She's really nice, you just have to give her a chance!"

"Oh real nice huh? Yeah, well she sure knows how to scold people, that's for sure." You snickered quietly to yourself, Karkat shooting you a look.

"Oh, don't act like she didn't get you either hot shot! You probably got it the worst out of all of us!" he said fiercely, standing up to help emphasis his point.

You sighed. "Look, just making a point okay? Besides, I'm actually just thinking about her."

"What?" Karkat's voice was incredulous, and upon reviewing how you said it, it made you flush a little.

"Okay, okay, chill out man! I meant thinking out of concern for her injuries! We didn't cause those, the cuts on her knees, I know we didn't!" You said, trying to recover what little dignity you might have had after not finishing your thought process. "I mean, she landed perfectly fine after jumping from the window sill, but something had to have happened after we lost sight of her!"

"Okay Sollux, just listen to this, because I'm only going to say this once: She's not here, so she's not our problem."

"No KK, please just listen! I know it sounds like a stupid thing to worry about, but does she really seem like the type who would stumble while running from danger; _especially_ when there is literally nothing that could have tripped her on the way there other than a pebble?"

Karkat was going to retort when Nepeta shushed him, placing her hand over his face and looking at you sternly.

"So you noticed too huh?" She asked, eyes sharply focused on you.

You got a shiver down your spine. You've never actually fought Nepeta for real, only play-fighting when they needed someone else to join in on their roleplaying, but you're sure this is how her opponents felt when going against her. You nodded, pushing your glasses up your nose, and leaning onto the chess board, pushing some pieces off of their places.

"We noticed when we visited her, that she had those injuries." Tavros said, getting up and walking to stand next to the crate, deck of cards in hand. "We knew you guys wouldn't actually harm her, but still, one would have to wonder what happened right? It's not like it's abnormal for someone to fall on their knees and scrape one and bruise the other, but both knees were scraped. And what you _don't know_ is what Eridan told us while we were visiting."

You immediately perk at Eridan's name. What the heck did he know about all of this? You thought for a bit when you realized that you had found Aradia with Eridan just before Kanaya had appeared. It had struck you as odd but you suppose your adrenaline had blinded you in the moment to really question it.

"Okay, so what did the fish stick say?" you asked calmly, trying to piece together what you knew.

Tavros glanced at Nepeta and she nodded at him, the cat-like troll sitting in Karkat's lap in the process, the latter glaring at her but not saying a word. Tavros began talking, placing the deck of card he held onto the table.

"So do you guys remember those queer clouds we saw earlier? The ones that gave Sollux a weird buzzing sound in his head?"

You nodded, not sure where this was going until it hit you before Tavros had even continued.

"It affected her too didn't it?" you asked, eager to know if where you were going with this was right.

He nodded confirmation, and continued. "Apparently the clouds affected her to such an extent that it's making her pass out, which is where she got those scrapes: from passing out on the road."

"But why would it affect her too?" Karkat said, poking his head out from around Nepeta." I mean, Sollux has psionic abilities, but she doesn't! She's only a rust blood!"

"Actually," Nepeta said hesitantly, "she does, but not the same type. It's more like psychic powers more than anything. She's had it since we were wrigglers, right Tavros?"

Tavros nodded and you immediately felt everything make sense. The reason why she was so confident that she could take on people like yourself and probably Vriska and the reason she had seemed to not fear being alone or being scared of anything else. If her powers were even somewhat similar to your own, she could probably take on a few adult trolls and maybe a little more.

The fact that you were unable to detect even that much from Aradia made you feel like you had failed a little bit. It had crossed your mind, you know it had, but you had dismissed it so quickly due to momentary hatred that it never even registered until it was confirmed by Nepeta and Tavros.

You smacked your face into the chess board and groan.

"How did I not see this earlier?" you questioned to the black rook next you, the chess piece silently judging how you could have possibly missed something so important. You felt like you could go on about how terrible it felt and sing songs about how many different ways you could've possible figured it out earlier, but something Tavros started saying caught your attention.

"He also said no one else was going to get rid of them, so that's what he was doing. He refused to tell us anything else though, whether it's because he didn't know the details himself or didn't want to let us know is unknown." Tavros reported to Karkat, who thought in silence.

"Wait what?" you said, sure that what he just said was important, a pit in your stomach starting to grow.

Tavros turned to you and began to patiently explain again what he had said. "Eridan told us the clouds were the source of Aradia passing out, to which we concluded is the same source of the buzzing that you felt. He also told us he was getting rid of them since no one else could."

Then you felt it, the buzzing again, except it was worse and this time it physically started to hurt, small sparks of your psionic energy flying from your eyes and from around your head. Swiping away the red and blue lights, you looked at them sternly, a plan forming in your mind.

"We need to help Eridan."


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More things are set into motion, and even if Karkat doesn't understand 100% of everything, he's still tying.
> 
> PREVIEW: You are now Karkat Vantas, and nothing makes sense anymore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright guys, so I'm going back and trying to edit everything since it's been so long since I've even touched this fic, and I feel like explaining a bit why I'm taking forever to update. 1) being that the computer that had all my files on this fic can no longer connect to the internet, 2) is that I won't try to make more chapters since I already had two or three chapters saved on said computer after this one, and 3) I have lost that computer so I can't transfer the files like I wanted to.
> 
> I realize that this has taken me the better part of two years to wrap around back to trying to update this, but I promise, I will finish this!

You are now Karkat Vantas, and nothing makes sense anymore.

Sollux had decided that you all had to go and find Eridan and, according to Nepeta and Tavros, he had disappeared before they'd left.

Currently though, you were sent to Aradia's hive with Nepeta to check up on her, because she was somehow involved in all of this.

Now you weren't stupid, and they knew that, it's just that nothing made sense to you at the moment. You had the info that only half explained things, but you didn't know what everyone else knew, so it was making the process slower than it could've been. Nepeta had tried to explain it to you, but gave up and said, "You'll get it once you see it. You're a visual learner after all."

Rolling your eyes to yourself as you ran, you started to feel light drops of water land on your hands and face. Nudging Nepeta, she nodded back to you as you both picked up speed, the rain going from drizzling to pouring in a flick of Nepeta's fake tail.

You made it there in record time, according to Nepeta, and were both ushered in by some weird olive colored troll.

"Mue- er, Nepeta! Howv ya' been lass?" he said, hugging your soaking wet friend while she giggled madly. "And you, you're Vantas right?" he said, turning to you.

You freeze at his words. No one called you by your last name, ever, so how did he know?

"How-"

"Ahh my bad! You look like an old friend of mine! Never mind lad, but do tell me, what is your name?"

Now you had to really stop.

"You… know someone with my last name?"

He paused and looked surprised at what he'd said, then tried to backtrack, stuttering as he did.

"Well, er, you see 'ere, uh I uh, made that up on point ya' know, it was a nick names of a sorts-"

"Dualscar."

Everyone in the room stopped to find the owner of the voice, Aradia, who was at the bottom of her steps.

"It's safe Dualscar, you can tell them." She said trying to look full of life, when you could clearly tell something was wrong. You marched over to her and started pushing her upstairs.

"What are you doing?" She said, trying to get your hands off of her back, but you grabbed her arms by the wrists and calmly waited till she stopped struggling.

"Do you want me to tell you what I'm doing?" you asked, your voice coming out quieter than you had thought, almost startlingly so, but it didn't matter.

She nodded, almost scared, but you released her and patted her shoulders gently.

"I'm getting you back to where you were, which I'm assuming is your room. You need to rest, and though this conversation is important, your health is above that. Now go on…" you said, lightly pushing her now, and she complied peacefully, though gave an odd look to the two trolls behind you.

You turned around and beckoned them to follow her up.

"We'll have the conversation in her room, so that she doesn't miss anything." You explained while walking to what you guessed was the kitchen, grabbing a few mismatched mugs from a cupboard.

You heard light footsteps climb the stair, but didn't hear this Dualscar person go up. You looked out from behind the wall you were working behind to see him staring up the staircase.

"Go on." You said, drawing his attention to you.

"I vwoulda just let her stay ya'knowv. She can take care o' herself, so she knowvs vwhat's good and bad for herself." He said, smiling a toothy smile, his canines flashing.

"Yeah, I know you would've," you grumbled, "and that's why _I_ had to do it. Now go, the cocoa will be done soon." You claimed, dragging yourself back behind the wall.

You heard him give a dark chuckle and say "Just like him huh?" then walk upstairs.

You so badly wished you knew who he was talking about.

After you had prepared the four mugs of cocoa, you got a cookie tray out to use as a serving plate, finding nothing else big enough to hold all of the mugs.

Once you were up the stairs, you followed the sounds of their voices and walked into a quite large room. Well, larger than what you thought a low blooded troll could own.

"Oh, cooca!" Nepeta said, jumping off from Aradia's bed and over towards you, grabbing ahold of two mugs.

"Hey-" you started trying to get her to put them back, but almost tripped. Stabilizing the tray with the two remaining mugs, you gave one to Dualscar and the other to Aradia, since Nepeta was sitting there sniffing at how good the two cups of cocoa smelt.

You beckoned her over and she gave you the other mug, smiling as she sat down next to Aradia and placing her own mug to the side to brush at the other's hair.

The room seemed to have a nice, still-like peace, and though you felt bad, you had to get to the importance of your visit immediately.

"Aradia, Eridan had said that you were affected by the clouds right?"

She gave you a dazed look from underneath her covers, but nodded, sitting up with the unnecessary (but appreciated) aid of Nepeta.

"Well, it affected Sollux too. Ya' know the one; tall, skinny troll with double pointed horns, bad attitude and a lisp." You described, noting how Dualscar's face lighted up in recognition.

You decide to ignore it and move on.

"Well, even though when we first met and things didn't go over so well," you said, blushing at the memory and forcing yourself to cough to cover it up, "I don't know if you had enough time to analyze any of us there. I am assuming that you didn't and so therefore I may or may not be stating the obvious to you: Sollux has psionic abilities, something similar to what you have I assume."

This caught both Aradia and Dualscar's attention, though Dualscar seemed to have a different idea about this for he muttered something like "Well that confirms it…"

You ignore him again.

"So we think that these clouds might be affecting those with psychic and psionic powers. We don't know for what, but according to Tavros's calculations, the more powerful you are, the more it affects you, and or, the weaker you are the more it affects you. It's either one of those two options, but regardless, it's still dangerous, and no amount of staying inside will help these clouds go away."

"So you're saying that we have to go out and find the source of this problem?" Aradia asks, her eyes sparkling as she asked.

"Of course Aradia! It's almost like an adventure if you think about it!" Nepeta chirped, clasping onto Aradia's shoulder. "How exciting!"

"Yes, indeed it does Nepeta! But before that," she said, turning to Dualscar, "I believe I have promised something in return for my trip to town."

**Author's Note:**

> Hello my dears! I do hope you are enjoying this thus far! I hope that I can get the next few chapters out, so please be patient, because I have just started school back up and UGH! It is such a pain! But, I sincerely hope that I will get the others posted soon! UwU


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